It occurs to me that one way to improve the forum search function would be to eliminate it. I believe if there were no search function, people would read the FAQs and existing threads before concluding that their issue is new.

I'm not sure I'm completely serious about this suggestion, but I wanted to follow this thread, and the only way I know to reliably find something in these forums is to search by author.

On the serious note: from the thread I pointed to, it seems that removing SSID from the URL (so Google can index the whole site) is pretty simple and straightforward. How about giving it a try?

Search within a thread would be really useful addition, but to my big surprise it seems noboddy implemented it yet. I saw several MOD requests on phpBB forums, all without replies.

We already implemented things like this. We know of that problem. We are working on it. We are working on several other problems too.
Please be patient. It's not the end of the world._________________"To have a successful open source project, you need to be at least somewhat successful at getting along with people." -- Daniel Robbins

As far as I know, yes. This is particularly annoying when you know the title of a thread and not where it is located. I'm hopeful that this is a feature to be implemented in future versions of phpBB.

How many times do I see moderator replies like this.

Gentoo forums are the backbone of this distribution, you choose to use phpBB because (apart from the pathetic search facilities) it is a good BB and BECAUSE IT IS FREE.

So how about putting back in or developing a few add-ons for your own use here?

I see lots of "only if it's mainstream phpBB" as well. Come-on there are some good MODs available that are approved by phpBB that would at least ease the pain.

PLEASE get a bit more flexible on this.

consider how much the forum is getting bloated because we dont have an effective search tool and ask the same things over and over again.

I've got so frustrated with the forum search that I have spent the day installing apache mod_php etc with a view of installing phpBB (is it really not in portage?!) just so I can see if I can do something about it.

This effort has been hampered by the very lack of decent search and in passing I have started to see the "official line" on doing something about it.

I am wondering if I am not completly wasting my time !

If I do manage to code something that improves the search (possibly apporved on phpBB) would you even want to use it?

That's a serious question.

Is it worth anyone spending any time trying to come up with a better search? or is this something you simply dont want to do?

Should I PM someone about this before I go any further into it?

Regards.
_________________Linux, because I'd rather own a free OS than steal one that's not worth paying for.
Gentoo because I'm a masochist

How many times do I see moderator replies like this. [...] So how about putting back in or developing a few add-ons for your own use here?

In my case, ability is the issue, and in most other cases, time is the issue.

Gentree wrote:

I see lots of "only if it's mainstream phpBB" as well. Come-on there are some good MODs available that are approved by phpBB that would at least ease the pain.

I don't think anyone has criticized quality of phpbb MODs. The reason they aren't used is due to increased time and effort it takes to migrate from existing versions of phpbb to newer versions (when they are rleased). The more MODs that exist, the greater potential for the process to be arduous. No matter how many times we post this, people seem to ignore it. Or pay attention to it.

Gentree wrote:

PLEASE get a bit more flexible on this.

It isn't a lack of flexibility as much as it is a lack of time.

Gentree wrote:

consider how much the forum is getting bloated because we dont have an effective search tool and ask the same things over and over again.

That doesn't prevent you from reading threads that you post in. Such as ian!'s last post in this thread. There is another thread addressing the google search feature. There are more issues than just coming up with the code.

Gentree wrote:

I've got so frustrated with the forum search that I have spent the day installing apache mod_php etc with a view of installing phpBB (is it really not in portage?!) just so I can see if I can do something about it.

Its unfortunate that you were/are frustrated, but great that it inspired you to 'do something.' If you are good with code, and phpbb in particular (and probably MySQL), help would be welcomed. Understand that the search code we are using isn't the default search of phpbb (which may not be obvious, but is evident by reading rac's related posts to this forum).

Gentree wrote:

This effort has been hampered by the very lack of decent search and in passing I have started to see the "official line" on doing something about it.

I'm not certain what that meant. Your effort to improve search, has been hampered by the current abilities of the forums search?

Gentree wrote:

I am wondering if I am not completly wasting my time !

If you are trying to help without first asking how, then yes, it is probably a waste of time, since you won't have the same search code.

Gentree wrote:

If I do manage to code something that improves the search (possibly apporved on phpBB) would you even want to use it?

That's a serious question.

I'll poke rac, and have him reply regarding how he would like to deal with offers of help.

Gentree wrote:

Is it worth anyone spending any time trying to come up with a better search? or is this something you simply dont want to do?

The answer isn't simple. "It depends" is probably the best answer.

Gentree wrote:

Should I PM someone about this before I go any further into it?

I wouldn't do too much work, but lets see how rac responds first._________________lolgov. 'cause where we're going, you don't have civil liberties.

First of all every normal search SHOULD show me what I have searched!
Not only show me the results. Because I can do other thing in that time
and very easy to forget what exactly I searched for.
Also If I see the results this feature could provide me to correct my
search query.

Also I see naturally if Quick search would search in current topic not
thrue the all forums. That is what I really missing.
continue of this concept coud be search in searched results if
I see too much results.

So forum search is not much better then Gentoo itself.

P.S. I have don't spoke about string search "word1 word2",
but there are people which done it before.

So, guys look after google and you will be also great.

It can be strange, but most of helpfull threads here I have found
with help of Google, not this search!

So, my advice for users is. If you really want to find here
something use Google, not this strange search engine._________________Lefsha

I see lots of "only if it's mainstream phpBB" as well. Come-on there are some good MODs available that are approved by phpBB that would at least ease the pain.

I don't think anyone has criticized quality of phpbb MODs. The reason they aren't used is due to increased time and effort it takes to migrate from existing versions of phpbb to newer versions (when they are rleased). The more MODs that exist, the greater potential for the process to be arduous. No matter how many times we post this, people seem to ignore it. Or pay attention to it.

I always upgrade these heavily modded phpBB forums via EasyMOD and I really have to say that it´s an easy way most of the time. Even if it occasionally fails, it gives you exact hints on what failed so that you can fix it manually. It also has a preview mode which only displays the file changes which it would perform.

I don't know if this is directly connected to this thread, but here goes:

On Linux Questions, (which seems to be a very similarly setup board & same software) I usually click on the 'User CP',
then go to the bottom of their page, and change the 'last day' to 'last 10 days' (go) to pick up all the threads I have been participating in.

On Gentoo, I can't do that, so I have to fake it with a search for 'penguinlnx' (me). At this time I don't know what is reallly better,
but the Linux Questions board is easy to fine tune by selecting the 'days'.

Search results are irrelevants, people don't answer anymore, in short, These forums are now useless.

So, pardon me for being blunt, but I wish someone starts a new forums site about Gentoo, and manage it well afterward.

I admit that sometime I troll baiths, but this is a genuine complaint, and a equaly genuine wish. Finding help of others mistakes is of crucial importance with Gentoo, but Gentoo does little to ensure either everything goes smooth, or that problems are easely solved.

So, I now find it more and more of an hassles to maintain Gentoo, between roaming between gazillions of sites (irc, newslists, forums, blah blah, ... list goes on) and go back to what I was doing before... use Slack and resolv dependencies by hand as I go along. I have never felt so insecure than now since I dropped from Windows 2 years ago._________________(7 of 9) Installing star-trek/species-8.4.7.2::talax.

I did not know the forum was now scanable by Google. I thought I've read a while back that this was impossible due to the dynamic nature of php and a bulletin board.

I will now search with Google, but it should be publicized more (unless I'm blind). For instance, a nice Google box in which to we type our search terms instead of this "sucky" (me like) native search.

Thanks a lot guys. This is the most valuable informations I ever got back from a rant _________________(7 of 9) Installing star-trek/species-8.4.7.2::talax.

Why when I search for "mysql.phpbb_sessions_keys" does it change to mysql and just mysql and nothing related comes up, and it's not just this string but a bunch, like every time I do a search. I hate search on this peice._________________I think that the forums are the greatest thing about Gentoo, thanks to everyone that posts on them!

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
-Mark Twain-

Why when I search for "mysql.phpbb_sessions_keys" does it change to mysql and just mysql and nothing related comes up, and it's not just this string but a bunch, like every time I do a search. I hate search on this peice.

Why when I search for "mysql.phpbb_sessions_keys" does it change to mysql and just mysql and nothing related comes up, and it's not just this string but a bunch, like every time I do a search. I hate search on this peice.

Why when I search for "mysql.phpbb_sessions_keys" does it change to mysql and just mysql

Doesn't happen for me. Searching for "mysql.phpbb_sessions_keys" will effectively search for "mysql phpbbsessionskeys", as expected, and you'll find this thread._________________Please read our FAQ Forum, it answers many of your questions.
irc: #gentoo-forums on irc.freenode.net

I think it's mostly a matter of opinion. There was a discussion quite some time ago (in this forum IIRC) about switching to other software. It was decided against at the time. The option remains, but would have to be for a really compelling reason.

Search is being worked on._________________lolgov. 'cause where we're going, you don't have civil liberties.